


Friend of the devil

by killerweasel



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-08
Updated: 2014-08-08
Packaged: 2018-02-12 09:43:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2104983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killerweasel/pseuds/killerweasel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes when you win, you still lose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friend of the devil

Title: Friend of the devil  
Fandom: Angel  
Characters: Lindsey McDonald, Lorne, Angel, Spike, Illyria  
Word Count: 2,375  
Rating: R  
Warning: major character death  
A/N: AU after _Not Fade Away_  
Summary: Sometimes when you win, you still lose.

 

My eyes fluttered open and I clutched at my chest. It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, which worried me. Two bullets had made their way through my body, tearing through flesh and bone before slamming into the wall. Glancing at the floor, I could see that the blood around me was starting to dry. Then I pressed my hand to my chest. No heartbeat. It looked like I’d finally joined the Wolfram and Hart undead workforce.

“I shouldn’t be here.” Talking hurt, but moving hurt even more. Using the wall for support, I slowly straightened up. I felt my shirt tear loose from the wall and I think some of my skin came with it. Undead workers always showed up at the home office down below when they died. And yet here I was, standing in the room where someone I’d thought was my friend had made what I knew would be a short life, even shorter.

Something must have happened to keep the contract from totally kicking in. If everyone else had done their jobs, wiped out the most important members of the Black Thorn, the Senior Partners would have finally acted. What I’d tried to explain to Angel once as he’d been extracting information from me was that the Partners didn’t exist here. That’s why they had people like the Black Thorn, employees, and full demon armies at their fingertips. But, if you pushed hard enough, pissed them off beyond belief, they’d make a special guest appearance.

“It’ll be just like fucking Atlantis all over again.” I coughed, spitting a wad of blood onto the wall before pushing myself towards the door. I’d tried to get him to look up the information in the firm’s libraries, but he had been too busy with this grand plan of his. I’d known what I was talking about, Eve hadn’t been kidding when she said I knew more about the Senior Partners than anyone else.

The ground under my feet was uneven, like there’d been one hell of an earthquake while I’d been gone. At least we weren’t directly on the coast. That’s what took out Atlantis. Huge earthquake followed by tidal waves that lasted for a day until there was nothing left. I staggered forward, clutching a hand to my chest as I moved.

“Lindsey.”

I looked around, trying to figure out where the voice came from. “Lorne? Didn’t you leave?”

“Down here, gumdrop.”

Tilting my head, I blinked a few times at the head on the floor. Maybe I was in hell. It would be just like the Partners to have the head of your murderer torment you for eternity. “Do I even want to know how you’re talking?”

He rolled his eyes, an action that was a bit disturbing because it seemed perfectly normal until you realized there was no body attached to his neck. “We missed a demon. He got me as I left the room. As long as my heart is okay, I’m good to go. Don’t suppose you see my body anywhere, do you?”

The room was covered in rubble. I walked around carefully while Lorne told me what he could remember. I’d been right about the earthquake. Spotting a green hand sticking out from under a table, I pulled the body loose. It took me a couple of minutes to drag it over to where his head was. Then I sat down on the floor. “You know I could kill you right now and it would be perfectly justifiable homicide, right?”

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

I rubbed my temple. “I understand why he picked you, but why’d you do it, Lorne? I was _helping_.”

“You wouldn’t understand.” He sighed. “Or maybe you would.”

It took me a couple minutes, but an idea popped into my head. It was his way out of the mess Angel had brought them into it. One bad deed, just enough to leave him as tainted as the rest. Or maybe he’d signed a contract with the firm and the Partners would void it once I was dead. Either way, I was now a member of the undead and he didn’t look very happy with himself.

“Yeah, I think I do. Tell me how to fix your body; I don’t think this building will stay up if there are any aftershocks.”

\---

The streets were deserted. Hopefully most of the population had fled before things went from bad to worse. There were quite a few bodies though. It looked like the firm had used their demon armies after all. Once unleashed, they would go on a rampage until no one was left alive. “You really think any of them made it through the fight?”

I managed a very tiny smile. “Angel’s too stubborn to die, Lorne. If anyone made it out, it would be him.” And when I found him, I planned on punching him square in the face. This mess, all the destruction, was his damn fault.

The damage grew worse as we got closer to what used to be Angel’s hotel. That must have been where the quake started. Lorne was leaning on me now and I knew it wouldn’t be too long before he dropped. Even his kind needed to recover from serious injuries. “What in the hell is that thing?”

I followed his finger and sucked in a breath. “That would be a dragon.” The Partners must have pulled out all the stops for the final battle. Dragons were impossible to control, killing whatever came in their path. I could see a sword sticking out of its eye. The sword looked familiar and I smiled. “Angel killed it.”

Of course he’d be the one to take on the dragon. Angel probably pushed the others out of the way to get at the damn thing. A groan came from underneath a pile of demon corpses. Lorne and I dropped to the ground, shoving the bodies out of the way. The face of the former god king stared up at us. I moved my hand in front of her eyes and there was no reaction. She wasn’t going to make it.

Her hand reached out and Lorne took it. “Inside.” She coughed as a spasm shook her frame. “Scared.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

I brushed my fingers over her cheek. “It isn’t as bad as you think. Just rest, then the pain will stop.”

Whatever she said next was lost as an aftershock tore through the city. The buildings around us rocked on their foundations. By the time it was over, she was gone. I put my hand on Lorne’s shoulder. He was shaking and whispering something under his breath.

“We need to hurry, see if any of the others are left.”

We passed by the body of the street thug turned lawyer. There was a circle of dead demons around him. At least he’d gone down fighting; some of us hadn’t been given that chance. I hated just leaving him there, but there was nothing we could do about it right now.

The hotel looked like it had been hit by a bomb. We moved inside carefully, trying not to bump into anything. “If they were in here, where would they be?”

“We should try the office.”

There were more dead demons inside, littering the floor. I tripped on one and swore loudly. A noise came from inside of the office. “Angelcakes? Is that you?”

The reply was more of a sound than a word. Once we came into the room, I could see why. The floor was coated in crimson. The body parts I saw had dozens of still-bleeding wounds. If they had been human, they would have died hours ago. Spike was draped over Angel’s chest and a demon’s hand was sticking out of his back.

“Lorne, if you know where medical supplies are, I think you should go get them. We can’t stay here. If you can’t find anything, bring duct tape. That’ll work for now.”

When he left, I crouched down. “Spike?” He moaned softly. “This is going to hurt.” I curled my fingers around the hand in his back and yanked it loose. Blood splattered against my face as a scream tore from his throat.

Angel hadn’t stirred. I reached around Spike and touched the older vampire’s face. There was no response. His injuries had to be incredible to keep him knocked out. “Doyle?”

My eyebrows went up. “Doyle’s gone, Spike.” They were both colder than usual, which worried me. It must be the result of all the blood loss. I sat up when Lorne came back. He had a couple of rolls of tape in his hand. After he joined me on the floor, we got to work.

\---

The only reason I stopped at a hotel at all was because the sun would be coming up soon. Everyone in the car could use some rest. I didn’t think I needed to sleep any more and even if I did, I had a feeling it would be nothing but nightmares. I sat on the edge of the bed, watching the news on the television. No one really knew had happened in LA, they were writing it off as a freak earthquake of epic proportions.

Over on the other bed, Angel moaned in his sleep until Spike pressed his body closer. They were both in very bad shape, but it was only a matter of time before they recovered. I’d made a call to a guy I’d known when I was still alive and he’d delivered enough blood to feed them for days.

Getting up, I walked into the bathroom and peeled my shirt off. The dried blood was starting to make me itch. It was odd to be seeing the wounds that had killed me. They didn’t seem as deep now; maybe my new body was repairing the damage. I scrubbed my clothing in the sink, getting some of the blood out, and hung them up on a rack to dry. Then I took a shower to get the last traces of death off of my frame.

When I came back out, Lorne was handing Angel a bag of blood. Angel froze when he saw me. I chuckled softly. “I’m not going to kill you Angel; otherwise I would have done it by now. You can relax.” Wrapping the towel tighter around my waist, I sat down next to him. “I think you won. If you’d lost, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

He swallowed a few times as he stared at the blood in his hand. “The others?”

I shook my head. “You three are the only ones left. I never saw the ex-Watcher. Gunn was dead before we arrived and there was nothing we could do to save Illyria.”

A noise came from his throat and he covered his eyes with his free hand. “All of them? Why?”

I couldn’t answer that. The Powers were probably happy that one of their biggest rivals were gone, they didn’t care how many had fallen in the process. In a lot of ways, they were just like the Partners. “You need to feed and rest. The hotel room is paid for until the end of the week.”

Spike sat up, wrapping his arm around his chest. “Then what?”

“I’m going to take you somewhere to recover. It’s safe; no one will be able to find you there. You remember the apartment I had in LA? It’s like that, only on a larger scale. I own a few places like that.”

“Why would you help us, Lindsey?”

Lorne had asked the question they’d all been thinking and it took me a minute to come up with an answer. “I don’t have anything better to do.” I didn’t, not really.

Angel snorted before sinking his fangs into the bag of blood. “If you don’t want to go, that’s fine. It was just a suggestion. Even with your healing abilities, some of those wounds will take weeks to get back to normal.”

“He does have a point.”

I gave Spike a smile. “Just think about it. The place is about five hours from here.”

\---

I swore Lorne’s eyes lit up when we came up the driveway. “This is really yours?”

“It’s one of my favorites, almost reminds me of where I grew up.” Parking the car, I popped the trunk to grab the bags of supplies we’d picked up along the way. Angel and Spike were leaning on one another as they made their way to the front porch. “The curtains should be thick enough for you two to move around during the day and there’s a spare car in the garage you can have.”

Once inside, I set everything by the couch. Lorne was staring at the symbols on the walls. “Do we really need these any more?”

“It’s always better to be safe than sorry.”

\---

Angel joined me on the back porch, sinking into one of the rocking chairs. “I’m not going to say I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

The last time he’d apologized, he’d been beating the hell out of me. I wasn’t interested in a repeat performance. “What you’re doing for us... not a lot of people would do that, Lindsey.”

I sat down next to him, staring up at the stars. “I’m not going to stay. There’s a set of numbers by the phone. You’ll be able to get anything you need through those.”

He touched my arm gently. “You don’t have to leave.”

“Yeah, I do. I’m not one of you, I never have been. I think the bullets to the chest kind of reinforced that.” My eyes followed a shooting star. “I’ll be gone in the morning. Don’t tell the others.”

Angel sighed. “What are you going to do?”

“I need to check up on my family, make sure they’re all okay. Then I’m going to try to figure out where I belong.”

I stood up and started to walk back into the house. There were a few things I wanted to pack before leaving. I paused at the door though. “And Angel? You should really call your son; he’s probably worried sick about you.”


End file.
